, ask what you can do for your country. franklin roosevelt, let me assert my firm believe that the only thing we have to fear is fear it itself. >> what makes a speech a part of history and what does this president need to say tomorrow as he begins his second term joining us are michael gerson speechwriter for president bush and james fallis, speechwriter to president carter. you say you don't write to be etched in granite, but i know that writers know when words ring. when you put words on paper, you think, i can see this, you know, as being what will be taken from this speech. so how do you craft those? >> it's true. the chair richter version is the state of the union address. i think with the inaugural address it's harder because something that registers as a showy line may come off as too showy. i think my sense of inaugural addresses the more they are poem like, the more they are spared, the less they try do the usually better they stand up. >> do you agree, less is more is this. >> yeah. and shorter is better. that helps. when richard nixon was wrikts his second inaugural, he look
